News

Fourth Grade Showcases Renewable Energy Study with Open House

hadley

Mar162018

As part of a year-long study of energy and the environment, BB&N fourth graders recently hosted an Energy Open House, showcasing their work this semester on renewable energy. During an integrated study, teams of five students were each assigned a renewable energy source—solar, wind, hydro, or fuel cell—to investigate. In social studies and language arts, students researched their energy source and reported their findings in notes and essays. In science, students built working models and learned how each form of energy works and how it is used. The Energy Open House was the students' chance to share their knowledge and experience with the broader BB&N community.

As part of the assignment, students also shared their thoughts and takeaways from the study.

Renewable energy is important because when fossil fuels run out we have a way to get energy. Also, renewable energies are clean and will never run out. We think that it is important to understand renewable energy because we now know that there are better and cleaner energies than fossil fuels. It's also important because we can tell more people about renewable energies and all that we learned about them.

- Charley and Emma

First, we chose either hydro, wind, solar, or fuel cell. Once we knew what energy we had and who was in our group we wrote down all of the things we wanted to do. As a group, we decided what we were going to take out and what was best for the time we had. Then we started to plan our project. By the third week we started to put our stuff together. Then we were ready for the open house! The purpose of all the steps was to lead up to point we are now—if we skipped steps we wouldn't know as much. If we skipped picking the renewable energy we would be clueless about all this stuff and could not have expanded our knowledge.

- Sydney and Coco

I really liked building our fuel cell car and racing it against the other group. It was really fun because we kept pushing our car and trying to win the race.

- Carl

My favorite part was getting to see our final project because we worked really hard on it and it was cool to see all of our hard work turn into a great project.

- Jonathan

My favorite partwas when we made the board game, because we got to design it and make it ourselves.

For 17 minutes on Thursday March 15, Middle School students left their classrooms to let their voices be heard in the wake of the tragic shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. As students from both seventh and eighth grades gathered in the courtyard next to the Middle School entrance, three seventh graders spoke to the assemblage before leading a chant and observing five minutes of silence for the victims of the horrific shooting.

The student-led and organized initiative saw Angelina Teig ’23, Elsie Salkever ’23, and Sanisha Mahendra-Rajah ’23 take turns on a megaphone before their peers. The three girls focused their remarks on gun control, and the importance of realizing how one’s own voice can make a difference. “No student should be scared to go to school,” Teig opened with in her speech, a sentiment that echoed through in all of the words spoken that afternoon.

Salkever also felt the need to take action, noting in her address: “Today we have been given a chance to use our voice and speak out against gun violence and laws…. By walking out today, we are refusing to be silenced and demanding that our voices be heard.”

The walkout came on the heels of many similar nation-wide school protests, with the hope that BB&N Middle Schoolers would have their opportunity to add to the discourse that has engulfed the American landscape.

When hearing that many schools would be staging walkouts, Teig and Salkever jumped on the momentum last month and approached Middle School Director Mary Dolbear about their intent to organize a protest at BB&N.

“I started to realize how important this issue is when I heard and saw the reactions of the Stoneman Douglas students,” Teig says. “They were so passionate, it really inspired me.”

Through numerous discussions, the two seventh graders created a committee of fellow students (Sanisha Mahendra-Rajah ’23, Avery Rubins ’23, Anjali Reddy ’23, and Meira Wang ’23) to spearhead the efforts. Rubber bracelets were produced and handed out to signify solidarity amongst the student body, and logistics and speeches were framed.

“This all came from the students, it was their hard work and determination that made this happen,” Dolbear says. “It’s so important for them to feel a part of something larger and have their voices matter.”

As part of the effort, Salkever also built a website to support the walkout, featuring a video created by Teig. Warning: This website contains content that may make some viewers uncomfortable: BB&N Middle School Walkout

Similar protests were planned for the Lower and Upper Schools, but were unable to occur due to the snow day on the original Wednesday 14 date.

Transforming Learning with Technology at the Middle School

andrew

Mar122018

MS science teacher Amy Carey with students
in the Maker Space.

Tushar, William, Daniel, and Harrison walk into the Maker Space in the Carriage House. The last bell of the academic day has rung. It's mud week, so there are no sports this afternoon, and these eighth-grade boys have signed up to do a bit of computer design. Svetlana Grinshpan, Middle School Technology Specialist, and Amy Carey, Middle School Science Teacher, are waiting for them. Carey asks, "So you want to do some Raspberry Pi stuff? Have you ever done it before?"

None of the boys have worked with Raspberry Pi, but Harrison offers, "I've done stuff with Scratch, but not this."

One whole wall of the Maker Space is taken over by the Gardening Elective group's seedling trays and grow lights. On the far wall are shelves with bins containing every crafty item imaginable, including pipe cleaners, glue sticks, felt, glitter, paint, markers, and of course, googly eyes. At one large table, Carey is finishing setting up the materials and projecting instructions for building with the Rasberry Pi computer kit. At the other large table, Grinshpan has set up the materials to make light-up greeting cards, just in case any of the boys want to take a break from their work with the computer.

The Maker Space exists as both a physical space and as an idea. As a physical space, it has a central location and currently holds a variety of tools, craft supplies, beads, electronics, a 3-D printer, sewing machines, and others. As an idea, "maker" creates endless opportunities for creativity and problem solving, and promotes Design Thinking Mindset for the entire school.

The Maker Space is one of the Technology Department's latest initiatives, and it fits into the larger context of the philosophy of technology in the classroom at the Middle School. Demetri Orlando, Director of Information Technology at BB&N, is clear about technology's role as a support for student learning in the classroom. Rather than technology as an end in itself (and a distraction of bells and whistles), Orlando says, "We want student technology to be available for seamless use whenever and wherever it advances teachers' instructional goals. Under the direction of a skilled teacher, technology tools greatly expand the repertoire of what students can be asked to do. It supports basic educational processes such as researching, writing, and communication."

Since the Middle School officially became a one-one (laptop) school in 2017, all students certainly enjoy an easier transition between work at school and work at home. Just as technology opens pathways to student discovery, it also opens pathways of connection between teachers and students. All teachers have a PowerSchool webpage for each of their classes. These web pages are a hub of communication for assignments, supporting materials, showcases of student work, student-to-student support, teacher feedback on student assignments, and more.

Grinshpan, who joined the Middle school faculty in 2009, has worked closely with every department. She has, in fact, helped nearly every individual teacher to see the possible ways technology can enhance their teaching and further their goals for their students. Her comfort with her role as Technology Specialist, natural curiosity about all subjects, love of students, and patience with teachers has made her an integral part of the Middle School teaching team. Bill Rogers, head of the Middle School history department, sees that her support has revolutionized the way they approach the history curriculum.

"Svetlana comes to nearly all our history meetings and has been responsible for probably three quarters of what we do with tech. Her ideas of how to extend and improve projects have been key to our work. I do not exaggerate when I say she is the most important change in our Middle School staff in 20 years! She has knowledge, creativity, communications, and dedication."

Indeed, the history department has made profound revisions to their pedagogy and finds that technology is now an integral tool to their teaching. Students benefit. Rogers lists some of the innovations the department has initiated with the help of Grinshpan: "First, technology has influenced curriculum design. Students now blog for our websites. They create virtual trips, websites, wikispaces, and newscasts. Second, technology has allowed more drafts and easy manipulation of essay teaching, both central to history courses. Third, it has allowed more in-class access to information and short video examples for enrichment. Fourth, it allows teachers to communicate and students to submit work when they are missing school. Fifth, it allows students access to the whole history section when they have questions at home. Sixth, we can project anything important instantly to the whole class." Sasha Bergman, ceramics teacher, also sees that technology enhances her teaching. "I meet almost weekly with Svetlana to continuously push the edges of what is possible for technology to contribute to my ceramics classroom. She seems to constantly have her hands and mind involved in new possible ideas that she brings to me to try out."

Middle School Technology Specialist Svetlana Grinshpan.

All departments benefit from Grinshpan's expertise and innovative contributions. She is always looking for new ways to engage faculty in their own professional development by introducing tools and workshops that increase teacher skills. "Demetri and I share the same philosophy," Grinshpan says. "The best uses of technology in education are when it amplifies a student centered, project-based, constructivist approach to learning. I am very excited about the technology related curricular work MS faculty have been doing over the last couple years. A few summers ago, a group of MS teachers participated in RISD's Art & Tech conference, and another group spent a week exploring the concept of design thinking at NUVU Innovation School in Cambridge. An interesting focus of the faculty's work has been exploring the new approach to learning known as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). It is an interdisciplinary method aimed at helping students develop vital transferrable skills and learning across subjects, through experimentation, trial and error, and creativity. I love the projects that come out of this interdisciplinary approach to learning because they exemplify that the world is complex and messy. Problems cannot always be solved through knowledge of chemistry or physics alone. Integrating coding, electronics, 3D modeling into Arts adds new dimensions to students' expression and understanding."

The use of technology in the classroom will remain integral for the foreseeable future, and the available tools are constantly evolving. Orlando is forward-thinking about next steps and next phases about how it can enhance student learning. He says, "A one-to-one learning environment levels the playing field for all of our students. The Middle School faculty has spent significant time thinking about how students should take best advantage of digital tools and resources while building a positive culture of use. The role of technology is still the same. Technology supports learning, but the availability and reliability has significantly increased, allowing for more sophisticated and fluid use of these tools."

Meanwhile in the Maker Space, the boys settle into their stools at the table. Carey shows them some of the materials and helps them brainstorm a plan. "This is an old monitor we've taken apart. Here's the converter. We'll need a joy stick. Look at the screen to see how they explain the wiring over there, and next steps." Grinshpan crosses the Maker Space to sit with the students in order to observe as they get to work and, if they need it, to lend a hand.

Tushar checks out the projected instructions. "I'd be into that."

Check out the below links for some examples of technology in the classroom in the Middle School:

The Upper School theater came alive with laughter and song last week when students performed My Fair Lady to several packed houses. The famous musical with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe, featured beguiling performances by all of the actors, and an impressive live student orchestra. Directed by Upper School theater teacher Mark Lindberg, with musical direction by Upper School music teachers Brian Reasoner and Joe Horning, the production turned on strong performances by Max Ambris ’19 and Cordiana Cozier ’19 in leading roles.

"Let the challenge begin!" announces Science teacher Melissa Courtemanche to the students in Environmental Studies, a new interdisciplinary course she co-teaches with History and Social Sciences teacher Matt Turnbull. Eagerly taking up the gauntlet, three-person groups huddle at lab tables, discussing the ideas they had been brainstorming online the night before.

"I don't think we should do any of the balloon ideas," says Ben Morris '18.

"Do we have access to a tape measure?" asks Isabella Kennedy '18.

Having studied fossil fuels and nonrenewable energy, the students are now shifting their focus with this lab project to renewable energy, building on their earlier study of food and agriculture.

In a pre-lab class, Courtemanche explained the chemistry behind biofuel production, in which living organisms react with sugar and produce fuel. In this case, the students will combine glucose with a yeast-and-water solution; the resulting fermentation will produce liquid ethanol, a biofuel, and some carbon dioxide. Armed with those assumptions and a limited array of materials, they are out to design a fermentation chamber, an apparatus that will contain the reaction and allow them to measure the amount of gas produced. Then, they can calculate a rate of reaction, which, along with the cost and number of materials, will help the class consider the strengths and weaknesses of each design.

"How's it going over here?" Courtemanche asks a group that has come up with two design ideas. "Ooh, I like it. You have a variety of materials here."

"For the first one, we're going to put the yeast solution and sugar into a calibrated syringe and cap it, so that's a closed system," explains Jossy Wang '18. "Then the gas produced should, theoretically, push the plunger out, and then we can measure the change in volume in there."

"For the next one, we'll put this plastic bag with the yeast and sugar in it into a centrifuge tube filled with water," says Ben.

"Then we can tell how much water is displaced by how much the bag extends," adds Olivia Maduro '18. "The change in volume is the amount of carbon dioxide released."

"We'll need to seal the bag," says Ben. "Hmm... I don't know how we're going to seal it off."

"We could use string," suggests Jossy.

"Be sure to think more about how to seal the bag," says Courtemanche, "but I love it!"

"Science! Yeah!" Jossy exclaims.

By staging a fermentation process, students can "actually see how biofuels are made," says Courtemanche. "It makes the science come alive for them, and they can insert this knowledge into the larger conversation of alternative and renewable energy sources."

The collaborative nature of the work also excites Jossy. "It's a lot of fun, and you get a wide range of ideas from everybody," she says. "It's a really good way to learn."

Ben appreciates the problem-solving skills they have to employ. "I like having to figure out how to design the apparatus and figure the rate of reaction by ourselves because it leads to valuable discussions," he says. "My dad and I make a lot of bread, so it's also interesting to use yeast in a scientific way, other than to raise my bread."

Another group has been debating how much of the allotted two packets of sugar they should add to their yeast solution in a centrifuge tube. Thinking aloud, Maggie Foot '18 offers, "If you have a set amount of yeast, will the yeast be able to break down all the sugar?"

"I think that if you have enough sugar," says Owen Hakim '18, "then you'll cap out the rate of the reaction."

"Exactly," says Maggie.

"So, after some point, it doesn't matter, but I'm not sure what that point is," says Owen.

"I think the reaction would just stop once the yeast uses the maximum amount of sugar," says Maggie.

Once the two packets of sugar go into the test tube, the students cover it with a red balloon, which should expand with the production of CO2. They plan to measure the circumference of the balloon at one-minute intervals to figure the rate of reaction. "It's sort of mass by volume," says Owen.

A few tables away, Courtemanche, a bright-eyed dynamo, lets out a whoop. "We've got action! What do you see there? Tons, tons, tons! What is it?"

Isabella leans in for a look. "Bubbles!"

"What does that mean?"

Isabella grins. "There's gas!"

"Yeah!" says Courtemanche, returning the smile.

Courtemanche's infectious energy does not go unappreciated. Jossy notes, "She's really, really passionate about environmental studies. She makes it engaging, and the way she interacts with us gets everyone really excited."

For her part, Courtemanche would like students to see that she's "someone who's willing to learn alongside them in a lot of ways, someone who wants to know how they're thinking and feeling about the material." Especially given the interdisciplinary nature of the course, Courtemanche hopes students perceive its relevance to their lives. "They are engaging with the world around them," she says, "by getting their hands dirty in the soil at BB&N or putting their hands in the Charles River—and also by interacting with the news and contemporary issues, set against a historical perspective."

That's where Matt Turnbull comes in. "I've enjoyed expanding the students' understanding of what's come before them," he says, "giving them a much broader repertoire of knowledge about how ideas have changed over time, how past events have influenced where we are today."

In developing this interdisciplinary course—using as a foundation the Environmental Science course Courtemanche taught here for seven years—she and Turnbull have adopted a systems thinking approach, which eschews narrow classification of subjects for interconnectedness. As Jossy explains it, "We get a lot of different perspectives on all the subjects we've covered. Especially with the water and food units—we've tied in a lot of history, politics, and social justice. Before this, I wouldn't necessarily have thought about how toxic waste can affect certain people just because of their income or race," she says. "I would recommend this class to everyone because they need to know this type of thinking, this knowledge. This class gives a really good global understanding of issues."

Jenna Selden '18, who labels herself as more of a "humanities person," says that within the first three weeks, she knew that she wanted to pursue an Environmental Studies major in college. "I'm fascinated by it," she says. "Ethics, philosophy, history—if separated, there's no way to think of a comprehensive solution to anything. Learning the science and history together is the only way to make effective change. You have to understand the whole picture."

Well aware that her students might find dispiriting the many environmental problems the world faces today, Courtemanche aims to counter the "gloom and doom," as she puts it, by "trying to spark their thinking about solutions, their optimism, their innovation."

Meanwhile, Liv has managed to seal her group's small plastic bag holding the yeast and sugar by tying a sailor's knot. Courtemanche applauds and says, laughing, "Sailor's knot! Who knew that was going to be a skill set for the team!" She goes on to commend Zach Cyr '19 for his creative thinking; he placed his group's centrifuge tube-and-balloon design in the heat of both the radiator and the sun to speed up the reaction.

Having decided that no harm could come from allowing the reactions to continue beyond class time, Courtemanche and the students pick up the process the next day, when students can run another trial, based on what their first experiments taught them, and work on calculating their rates of reaction.

"Because you all have different apparatuses, how are we going to compare their effectiveness?" Courtemanche asks. "Not how we actually do so—but what do we need?"

Several voices respond, "A common unit."

"Right. What do we have to report? Volume of yeast. What else?"

"Amount of sugar."

"Yes," Courtemanche continues, "and then rate of reaction, which we're indirectly measuring by the amount of CO2 produced. We can relay all that information and then as a group decide what we think the best design is, but we need the language to have the conversation."

Assessing their two designs, Ben notes, "Our syringe's plunger shot out because there was so much pressure."

"I think that's the one limitation," Jossy says, "because they're rigid containers. They're not like the balloons—they can run for only a certain amount of time." She points to the plastic bag submerged in the centrifuge tube. "If that one had worked better...."

"It would have overflowed," says Ben.

"But if we had bigger vessels," Jossy reasons, "then it could run longer, but we were limited in supplies."

The students realize that their fixed containers made measurements much easier to take than a balloon's.

"Plus, the plastic tubing one cost only 52 cents," says Ben.

Part of the lab assignment asks students to consider how they would "upscale" to mass biofuel production. Jossy reflects realistically, "It would be really hard to do this on a large scale. Trying to control this reaction and make sure it's safe and efficient with sustainable materials in big power plants—it'd be difficult."

Jenna approaches Courtemanche with her "upscaling" calculations. "Do you want to look at our math and tell us that it's wrong?"

"You should! You've got to lead with confidence. How about, 'Can you look at this and tell me that I'm right?'"

Jenna laughs and nods.

Extrapolating from their small lab-sized example, the students wrangle with the pros and cons of biofuels. "One of the biggest complaints about biofuels in general is the land-mass use," Courtemanche explains, referring to land needed for growing the requisite corn or sugar cane, for example. "They're even thinking about using the ocean surface to make biofuels out of algae."

Drawing on her knowledge from their unit on fossil fuels, Maggie says, "I know it's not exactly the same, but the land that's used for coal mines and oil fields, that's a pretty significant amount of space, too, right?"

"That's a good point," says Courtemanche.

"I know it's harder with biofuels because you need the right kind of growing conditions and soil," Maggie continues.

"We talked about how mining companies are required by law to remediate the land, right?—that is, to put back the topsoil and clean up after themselves," Courtemanche says. "Could you turn that, then, into fertile ground? Somebody working on soil science would find that an interesting question."

As Courtemanche thinks about the students engaging with the course material, she says, "They're really impressive. Pretty much on a daily basis, I'm like, wow—these students are smart, informed; they're eating this up, grappling with it."

She hopes that her students feel "curious, emboldened, safe to make opinions and to change their minds." She would like them to see, she says, "that we care about these issues. We want to impart our sense of responsibility and stewardship onto the students. What they do with that is totally up to them, but I want to deliver the message that these issues affect us every day."

Armando Hazaveh '18 says, "The class's discussions are lively and urgent. We all enjoy picking our way through these issues, and we are all inspired not only to speak but to act."

"It's been really fun," Turnbull says, "to see them come to class excited to keep talking about those things—and not just because it was their homework but because they're really staking out their positions on important issues."

"This course has definitely shaped my path," Jossy says. "I've gotten so much from it." She became interested in taking the course after Turnbull, her junior-year U.S. History teacher, suggested she might augment her penchant for science by writing her research paper about environmental justice. "I found it really interesting," Jossy notes, "to look at how some environmental issues disproportionately impact people of color and minorities. I'd like to study further the social justice aspects of these issues."

Courtemanche says, "They're thinking about who they want to become; figuring out what's important to them is part of their identity building. I think they're ready in their education to really fuse what they're learning in their classes and what they're seeing in the world." She looks across the lab room at the next generation of problem-solvers and innovators in the making. "It's kind of cool to be along for that ride and to offer them a course that models that in an intentional and structured way."